IT’S easy to forget with all the excitement of leadership contests and Brexits and inquiries which seem to have been going on since the birth of man, but the Welsh and UK governments still have the job of keeping the country running.

And this time of year you know what that means – budgets.

For politics hacks such as myself that means trying to get our heads round endless spreadsheets seemingly made as difficult as humanly possible for anyone without a degree in economics to understand.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, our politicians at both ends of the M4 seem to take a perverse delight in taking the opportunity to put the blame for all society's ills on each other.

Every year when the Welsh Government draft budget comes out we're told every cut, no matter how small or large, is purely the fault of austerity on the part of the UK Government.

And, there's some truth in this - for the most part, the Welsh Government's purse strings are ultimately held by Westminster.

Earlier this week Theresa May had the gall to claim austerity is over - a claim no one who's ever set foot outside the south west of England could ever make with a straight face.

But Westminster's control over Wales' finances is become less and less acute as more tax powers are devolved.

Is the devolution settlement perfect? Far from it, but it's what we’ve got at the moment. Standing in Cardiff Bay bleating that the big boys in Westminster haven’t given us enough money again just isn’t going to cut it.

But the UK Government isn't blameless either. Just watch as, every other time the prime minister is asked a question on the NHS, she takes great delight in pointing out how the situation in many areas is worse in Wales.

It may be true, but people would much rather you focused on the things you actually have control of, Mrs May.

We need our leaders to show leadership, not pass the buck, and for Wales to be the mature democracy it wants to be - a true Welsh Parliament - it's time for our politicians to start taking responsibility for their own back yard.

- Also announced last week were formal plans to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in Assembly Elections, and to rename the Assembly the Welsh Parliament.

The recommendations come following a report into electoral reform in Cardiff Bay last year, and come as no great surprise given Carwyn Jones and friends have been telling everyone they’d do this for as long as anyone cares to remember.

But notably absent from last week’s announcement was a formal plan to increase the number of AMs.

The top line of last year’s report was a recommendation for the number of AMs to be increased from 60 to as many as 90, with the argument doing so would allow for far more important scrutiny work to be carried out.

The idea of more politicians was always going to be a hard sell and, unsurprisingly, it proved controversial, to say the least.

A consultation into that particular proposal found only a slim majority in favour of the plan, with 56 per cent backing an increased number of AMs. And the Welsh Government has been tight-lipped on whether the proposal will be moved forward in the future, saying only that other elements of the report are "under consideration".

So is the plan dead? It seems unlikely this is the last we've heard of it, but, with only slightly more than half of the proverbial man on the street approving of the idea, securing the necessary super-majority in the Assembly to push the idea through seems pretty unlikely.

Meanwhile, another element of the report has caused ripples for a very different reason.

If the Assembly is renamed the Welsh Parliament, then the title of Assembly Member will obviously no longer be appropriate. Among the suggestions for replacements are Member of the Welsh Parliament - or MWP - which some have said this veers a little too close to 'Muppet'.

Frankly, I fail to understand the mindset of someone who thinks being a Muppet is a bad thing. Who doesn’t want to be a Muppet?

Of course, I wouldn't dream of making the obvious joke about Wales already being run by Muppets.

Perish the thought.